Pedestrian died from stroke two days after collision in West End last month

Regent St CCTV cyclist 1

The Metropolitan Police have issued CCTV images of a cyclist who was involved in a collision with a pedestrian who died of a stroke two days later and have appealed for him, as well as any witnesses, to come forward.

David Purkis, a 58-year-old married father of two from West Wickham in the London Borough of Bromley, died two days after the incident, which took place at the junction of Regent Street and New Burlington Street, W1 at around 5.40pm on Thursday 25 July.

According to police, “Initially both parties appeared uninjured and having spoken with each other at the scene they then carried on their journeys.”

However, on the Saturday, Mr Purkis suffered his fatal stroke. A post-mortem was conducted on Friday 9 August, and police say that they “await the result of further tests.”

Detective Constable Matt Hopgood from Catford Traffic Garage commented: "I would appeal to the cyclist and any witnesses to the collision to contact police.

"Any witness could hold vital information into what happened."

Anyone with information is requested to call the Metropolitan Police's Road Death Investigation Unit in Catford on 0208 285 1574.

It appears from the police's appeal that they may see a link between the collision between the cyclist and Mr Purkis, and the latter's death two days later.

While perceived conflict between pedestrians and cyclists is regularly flagged up as an issue of concern particularly in local media and at police community forums, it is thankfully rare that serious injuries result.

In 2011, the latest year for which figures are available, 99 pedestrians were seriously injured in incidents involving a pedal cycle, with two others killed.

Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.

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TeamCC[146 posts]4 years ago

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Sad that the pedestrian died. I see a lot of people walk out in the roads without checking because there isn't a car noise to hear, then the screeching of bicycle brakes and choice words between the two usually occurs. Don't see that changing much.

Another big leap here but the most likely medical scenario is an abrupt neck extension causing an internal carotid artery intimal tear (arterial dissection). This causes platelet activation, a clot forms and then can break off later. Very sad. The initial injury may have seemed trivial at the time.

I think that given a man has died it is only right the police follow up with the cyclist involved. There doesn't appear to be any blame from the police at this point but if the post mortem points towards the injury being caused by the collision then of course it should be followed up.

Obviously it's a tragedy that Mr Purkis is dead,but
it seems to me it would be very difficult to prove any culpability as there is a gap of two days between the incident and the death, and he could have struck his head at another time during that period. Or did he attend a hospital immediately afterwards ?

As I said when they showed the second picture on the news last night 'If that's the best photograph you've got, don't bother!' This country is littered with CCTV cameras but whenever they show a still it looks something like this. I was on a double-decker bus last week sitting on the bottom deck in front of a flat-screen TV showing video images from the bus's TEN cctv cameras.

The comments here make me despair. If this was a cyclist hit by a motorcyclist we'd all be working like mad to try to figure out ways to identify the motorcyclist. Here we're trying to absolve the cyclist.

Why? We're not saints!

If I had hit someone, we'd had "a conversation" ascertained that we were both OK and then I'd ridden off only to find later that the person had died, I'd be horrified and definitely hand myself in. However, I'd also be scared witless of the consequences.

As a matter of fact, many years ago (more than 10) I did hit a pedestrian who ran into the road in front of me. We did have a conversation and then went on our way. I have no idea if a jury would have blamed me for the incident, or her, if it had gone to court.

So I really feel for both families involved and hope this is resolved as soon as possible.

The comments here make me despair. If this was a cyclist hit by a motorcyclist we'd all be working like mad to try to figure out ways to identify the motorcyclist. Here we're trying to absolve the cyclist.

With no details as the collision, it impossible to say who (if anyone) was at fault at the collision.
The Police have said the cyclist stopped and spoke to the man afterwards, so it wasn't as if he was trying to get away.
I hope he come forward, but it will be hard to link the collision to the stroke and prove blame for the collision (unless they have some better CCTV).

Those pictures are useless. The first looks like a generic male London cycle commuter (look similar to me!) and the seconds looks like a shot from a late 80s commuter game.

The comments here make me despair. If this was a cyclist hit by a motorcyclist we'd all be working like mad to try to figure out ways to identify the motorcyclist. Here we're trying to absolve the cyclist.

Why? We're not saints!

If I had hit someone, we'd had "a conversation" ascertained that we were both OK and then I'd ridden off only to find later that the person had died, I'd be horrified and definitely hand myself in. However, I'd also be scared witless of the consequences.

As a matter of fact, many years ago (more than 10) I did hit a pedestrian who ran into the road in front of me. We did have a conversation and then went on our way. I have no idea if a jury would have blamed me for the incident, or her, if it had gone to court.

So I really feel for both families involved and hope this is resolved as soon as possible.

The comments here make me despair. If this was a cyclist hit by a motorcyclist we'd all be working like mad to try to figure out ways to identify the motorcyclist. Here we're trying to absolve the cyclist.

Why? We're not saints!

If I had hit someone, we'd had "a conversation" ascertained that we were both OK and then I'd ridden off only to find later that the person had died, I'd be horrified and definitely hand myself in. However, I'd also be scared witless of the consequences.

As a matter of fact, many years ago (more than 10) I did hit a pedestrian who ran into the road in front of me. We did have a conversation and then went on our way. I have no idea if a jury would have blamed me for the incident, or her, if it had gone to court.

So I really feel for both families involved and hope this is resolved as soon as possible.

An accident has happened. Someone has sadly died as a result of this incedent. Condolences to the family and friends of the victim.
Let's hope the cyclist has the courage to step forward and help the family make some sense of this.

Quote:

Sad that the pedestrian died. I see a lot of people walk out in the roads without checking because there isn't a car noise to hear, then the screeching of bicycle brakes and choice words between the two usually occurs. Don't see that changing much.

I generally look where I'm going and shout a warning, saves lots of problems.